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GodWatch: Christian Pastors Killing Witch-Children In Africa

In Africa, Christian pastors have been accusing children of being witches.

Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of "witch children" reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files.

The problem is that parishioners are following the Bible to the word:"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

The families with these witch-children are usually poor and would feel relief if they had one less mouth to feed. Communities come under pressure, and it's easier to make these poor children scapegoats than it is to reconcile why a loving god would create such suffering for them.

Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire.

For example, witness the plight of Nwanaokwo Edet of Nigeria:

The nine-year-old boy lay on a bloodstained hospital sheet crawling with ants, staring blindly at the wall.

His family pastor had accused him of being a witch, and his father then tried to force acid down his throat as an exorcism. It spilled as he struggled, burning away his face and eyes. The emaciated boy barely had strength left to whisper the name of the church that had denounced him – Mount Zion Lighthouse.